Okolona Fire Department
Standard Operating Procedure
Technical Rescue Team Response/Under Revision
Page Number:Effective Date:Supersedes Editions:Category:
Page 1 of 304/01/201110/19/2007, 4/01/2007, 01/01/2005Operational
Purpose:Members of the Okolona Fire Department are members of the technical rescue teams for the county fire service. Equipment for these teams are cached at station one. This procedure sets out the methods of response to technical rescue team call-outs.
Note:The Special Response Team Incidents Procedure has been merged into this document.
Procedure:
1.Unit 6697 is the primary unit for towing the Trench/Collapse Rescue trailer or Water Rescue trailer whenever a technical rescue team call-out has been made. However, the Incident Commander of the technical rescue incident may request a different vehicle, or the Okolona Duty Officer may direct a different unit be used.
2.Other department vehicles may be used to tow the trailers to a repair facility when necessary.
3.Other department vehicles may be used to tow the trailers in the event of multiple incidents or when 6697 is out of service.
4.The on duty Shift Chief shall oversee that the proper vehicle and trailer are ready to respond to a particular technical rescue.
5.The person driving the unit that is towing a rescue trailer must have successfully completed the Trailer Towing Class as established by the training bureau. This includes towing trailers for maintenance and team training purposes.
6.Only those members that are properly trained and are members in good standing with the appropriate Special Response Team, are to respond to Special Team Response incidents, unless otherwise approved by the fire chief or appropriate Special Response Team command staff person.
7.No person responding to a technical rescue team call-out may use his/her personal vehicle to respond to the scene, unless approved by the Okolona Duty Officer or technical rescue Incident Commander. Technical rescue team members are to respond to Okolona Station 1 on an emergency basis when a technical rescue team call-out has been made.
8.If additional vehicles are needed for technical rescue team member response, department service vehicles shall be used.
9.While OFD personnel are out of the district responding to technical rescue incidents, minimum Staffing at Okolona Station 1 shall be four (4), Station 3 shall be three (3). Station 2 personnel shall respond to Station 1 for staffing purposes until additional Okolona members respond to the station. Rescue 8081’s crew shall count in the station 1 staffing.
10.Off-duty career firefighters and volunteer firefighters who are technical rescue team members, and are standing by at Okolona stations may be sent to the incident scene to relieve Okolona members at the scene as authorized/directed by the Okolona Duty Officer or technical rescue team Incident Commander.
11.If no trained personnel respond, the on duty Okolona Fire District Duty Officer shall direct that a secondary dispatch be made.
12.If a technical rescue team call-out is made and the station 1 duty crew is away from station 1, this crew shall respond to station 1 on an emergency basis to make preparations for team response, such as hooking the appropriate trailer to the appropriate unit.
13.This procedure applies only to those incidents occurring outside of the Okolona Fire District. Any such incidents occurring within the Okolona Fire District shall be handled in accordance with the normal response procedures.
14.The Jefferson County Special Response Team procedures are adopted by reference and are to be considered as part of this procedure.
15.Notifications for Special Response Teams are made via fire pager.
16.Off-duty career and volunteer firefighters who are members of the applicable Special Response Team are authorized to respond to their assigned station on an emergency basis, unless the dispatch has indicated a non-emergency response is to be made.
17.Off-duty career and volunteer firefighters who are NOT members of the applicable Special Response Team may respond to their assigned station on a non-emergency basis. (This is to provide minimum staffing if on-duty career firefighters have responded to the incident.)
18.The goal is to have a minimum of four (4) Okolona Special Response Team members responding to technical rescue incidents. However it must be ensured that Okolona’s resources are not unreasonably depleted due to the response (see #9 above). It may be necessary that the response to such incidents is staggered (as in two (2) respond immediately, and another two (2) respond as soon as volunteer and off duty career firefighters respond to fire stations for back-fill purposes). Unless otherwise approved or requested by the command staff of the Special Response Team, no more than six (6) Okolona members may respond to an incident at any one given time.
19.Okolona members who are command staff for Special Response Teams are to respond in addition to the number stated above
20.When a Special Response Team incident has been dispatched, on-duty career firefighters who are team members and are working at stations 2 or 3 shall contact the on-duty shift chief via radio (FD TAC 80) or telephone, for response instructions. If the shift chief is not on duty, then the acting supervisor at station 1 shall be contacted.
21.With the many variations in on-duty staffing and team composition, the shift chief (or station 1 supervisor in his absence), must exercise judgment on which members should respond in which vehicles. (For example, there may be two (2) team members at station 2, and two (2) at station 1. In this case, the shift chief may instruct the station 2 team members to respond directly to the scene and not necessarily go to station 1 first.)
22.Prior to making a response to a special incident, team members must ensure they have with them, the following equipment: Louisville map book, portable radio, appropriate personal protective equipment, appropriate gear bag for incident, accountability tag (County tag with member’s picture) and for hazardous materials incidents, turn-out gear.
23.When members begin their response, they are to call radio (on the channel directed by radio to use), the unit number along with the number of persons in that unit. For example, “6697 is responding with a crew of two”. If a team member or unit has been assigned a call number by the response team, that should be noted when a response begins, for example; “8013 is responding as unit 6602”. For all other radio traffic, the assigned response team number is used, except that the first arriving unit should use the Okolona number as being on scene. This is to ensure the run ticket that is created by radio has an accurate reflection of our times.
24.Duty Officer response is not appropriate (unless the Duty Officer is responding as a team member).
25.Even if radio has designated a channel for other responding units to use, the channel that is assigned to on-scene use shall be monitored during the response. Care shall be exercised to avoid disrupting on-scene radio traffic.
26.If there are additional Special Response Team members remaining in the district, the on-duty shift chief shall notify the team members responding to the scene of additional personnel available to respond.
27.If the incident becomes a long duration incident (more than four (4) hours), consideration should be given to rotating personnel at the scene with personnel on stand-by at fire stations. This is the responsibility of the Duty Officer or shift chief.
28.Unit 8084 shall be the initial unit to respond to out of district hazardous materials incidents. This unit has been requested because of its command post capabilities. In the event of a hazardous material incident, the station 1 supervisor on duty is responsible to ensure 8084 responds.
Standard Operating Procedures are meant only to be guidelines. Actual conditions may warrant alternative actions.
Y:\Standard Operating Procedures\2012 SOPs\Technical Rescue Response.docx
Last printed 3/6/2012 8:53:00 PM